Dear Alumni & Friends of Cal SquashThe 2022-23 Squash season came to a close this weekend with a feast of squash at the Spectre Center in Philadelphia.
The Cal men's squash team was led by senior co-captains Garrett Kitahata and Charlie Love at the #1 and #2 positions. Both captains went undefeated for the tournament. After victories on Friday against Bucknell University (6-3) and Northwestern University on Saturday (7-2).
Cal finished the season in spectacular style by winning the Serues Division at Nationals, in an exciting 6-3 victory over arch rivals Stanford.
The overall match was poised at 4-3 (Cal lead) going into the last two matches. Cal needed to win just one of the final two matches to win the overall match. At the #9 spot, was Daniel Yang, and at #4 was Richard Cherry Labourene. Both games were tied at 1 game each, and the overall result hung in the balance.
A great atmosphere surrounded the courts with friends, teammates and family looking on and cheering each point. The first match to finish was Daniel's match. He pulled out a great 3-1 victory, and the Cal players flooded the court to celebrate the win. Richard also ended up winning his match 3-1.
Cal Men's Team With Serues Trophy:
Back row: Rohan Dondeti, Daniel Yang, Garrett Kitahata, Charlie Love,
Varun Kandula, Richard Cherry Labourene, Eric Katerman.
Front Row: Zachary Slonim, Omar Cochinwala, Shiv Sethi, Krish Garg
Two Cal players finished the season undefeated: Senior, Charlie Love and freshman Omar Cochinwala.
Huge thanks to Eric Katerman for volunteering his time to coach the team again this year. You can see from the picture above what the team think about him! And also a big thanks goes to Taissa Cherry for helping to organize the trips, and for taking pictures! And of course thanks to everyone who supported the team this year financially. It really makes a difference!
Cheers,
Ashley Kayler
Friends of Cal Squash
P.S. Here's the score sheet for the final match against Stanford:
What’s really great is that 3 of Cal’s top four players (Charlie, Garrett, Richard) are all products of NorCal squash. In years past, our top players have mostly been from overseas or east coast. And it seems that the pipeline of good junior players in the Bay Area is only getting stronger. It seems to be due to many great junior coaches particularly in the South Bay, and also some good players coming out of SquashDrive and other California based urban squash programs.
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